WTF - average salaries for all law graduates is $150k? I guess everyone I know are failures.

Also - average debt load seems very high - I am assuming selection bias on the part of SoFi, given that they likely on accept high earners who want to refinance (i.e. not on income based or public loan forgiveness).

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a small subset of skewed data can't be applied to the broader law school student population but it didn't stop the law school scummers in mid to late 2000s and it won't stop them now. Those court cases with the sophisticated consumer line of reasoning encouraged this.

I likely only noticed this because I live in Georgia, but I can't believe the average debt coming out of UGA law is almost $90k. Tuition is under $20k/year for in state residents, which make up the majority of the students, and UGA gives out lots of scholarship $.

Sofi will only refinance loans for grads in big law with a certain amount of liquidity. That being said, of course someone who goes to a top school and gets big law will earn big money.

We are only talking about a minority of graduates that will have a chance to make that money, and even fewer who last long enough to do anymore than break even on their debt.

The prospective 0L has to consider their chances of getting admitted to a top school, but also whether the grind of being subjected to a big firm will be worth their prime earning years. Naturally, if tuition is being discounted or there is a full scholarship, that cuts out a large of the equation, but there are still caveats.

This is right and is why I said what I did upthread. These numbers come from that tiny pool of people who make biglaw and are refinanced by SoFi. The reason SoFi's business model works is that they minimize risk by only lending to successful graduates.

The federal government doesn't discriminate based on degree marketability or likelihood of employment. It spreads the risk and makes up for it with high interest rates. If it did discriminate, it would still run a risk because past performance is not an indicator of future success. It would always be somewhat of a crapshoot.

SoFi lets the government take the risk on defaulters, then pre-selects success stories for refinancing. They offer a lower interest rate than the feds but probably higher than is necessary to mitigate lending risk. It's a gold mine for them while taxpayers lose all of their paying borrowers.

Sofi does not require "big law". It simply requires a certain income, and a certain salary to income ratio. My friend makes under six figures in ID and refinanced through Sofi. However, his debt was under 50k. Yes, Sofi only takes low risk borrowers, but having a good credit score, manageable debt, and a decent salary will take you pretty far.

Sofi likely will refinance anyone who can already pay back their debt without requiring IBR.